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[289] ἔνε᾽ ἔσάν οι (so Ar. accented against the rule, to shew that “οἱ” is not the article) offends against the “ϝ” and normal position of “ϝοι” (H. G. p. 337); van Gendt's “ἔνθά ϝ᾽”(“οι”) “ἔσαν” is doubtless right. In Od. 15.105 one MS. actually reads “ἔνθά οἱ ἔσαν”. Bentley's conj. “παμποίκιλα” saves the “ϝ” of “ϝέργα”, and has the support of one MS.; but the adj. goes better with “πέπλοι”, cf. Od. 7.96-7 “ἔνθ᾽ ἐνὶ πέπλοι λεπτοὶ” “ἐύννητοι βεβλήατο, ἔργα γυναικῶν”. Hence van L. suggests that the line originally ran like Od. 15.105παμποίκιλοι, οὓς κάμεν αὐτή”. Lines 289-92 are cited by Herodotos ii. 116, together with Od. 4.227-30, 351-2, as evidence that Homer followed the old tradition of the journey of Paris and Helen to Egypt related in (Herod.) 113-5, and was therefore not the author of the Kypria, which brought the fugitives to Troy on the third day from Sparta — the oldest piece of Homeric criticism in existence, and perfectly correct, if this passage always stood as at present. He quotes the lines as being “ἐν Διομήδεος ἀριστηΐηι”, a title now confined to E, but quite appropriate to the present passage, as down to 310 Diomedes is still the chief terror of the Trojans. The reading of the MSS. of Herodotos agrees with the vulgate, which was no doubt fully established in his time.

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